This invention relates to a solid state relay package comprised of a printed circuit board mounted within a housing and, more particularly, to terminal means for providing a mechanical connection to the housing and the printed circuit board.
Solid state relays are well known. Some commonly used circuits for such relays are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,555,353 issued Jan. 12, 1971 to Charles F. Casson and 3,723,769 issued Mar. 27, 1973 to Howard W. Collins. Such devices typically use a semiconductor switching device which can be switched into conduction by a control signal. These semiconductor switching devices are commonly mounted on a printed circuit board which is suspended in an insulation mass or housing.
In previous constructions, the terminal assembly has been attached to printed circuit boards simply by holding the printed circuit board in place via a jig setup and soldering the terminal thereto. The other end of the terminal was commonly affixed to the relay housing by means of a rivet or screw component. This, in the prior art, served to provide connection between the housing and the external terminal connector end. Although this type of terminal connection and packaging is in common use, its construction has been found to have many shortcomings. Some such shortcomings are the need for a jig setup during manufacture, a lack of a mechanical connection between the printed circuit board and the terminal and the housing, and the complexity of the mounting techniques employed to affix the terminal(s) to the housing.